The treatment of dental diseases in the past has largely depended on surgical and restorative techniques. Compositions, such as toothpaste, gels, mouth washes and the like, containing fluorides and antibacterial agents have only met with some limited success and effectiveness, due in part to the very low time-retention rate of those agents after application in the oral cavity. In general drug therapy for dental diseases usually has been accomplished by the use of long-lasting tablets or capsules orally administered to the patient. For example, long-acting capsules or tablets containing odor-masking material or ingredients have been suggested for use in the oral cavity (see U.S. Pat. No. 3,911,099).
Other means for applying therapeutic agents to the oral cavity, and particularly to the teeth, have included the use of gels applied to teeth (see U.S. Pat. No. 3,679,360), the application of a plastic, hardenable mass to the teeth containing various agents (see U.S. Pat. No. 3,964,164), and the application of a foam-film device containing medication (see U.S. Pat. No. 3,844,286). In addition, fibers, as the carriers of therapeutic agents, also have been suggested, such as the impregnation of cotton twine with calcium hydroxyapatite for hemostasis of injured dental tissues (see U.S. Pat. No. 3,417,179); solid adsorbable fibers of polyglycolic acid with medicants incorporated therein (see U.S. Pat. No. 3,991,766); and impregnated dental floss for caries prevention (see U.S. Pat. No. 2,667,443). However, none of these suggested methods of therapeutic treatment has been wholly satisfactory nor widely adopted and accepted, due to a variety of causes and disadvantages associated with each technique.
The diagnosis of dental disease in current practice primarily relies on the use of dental radiographs and/or a manual probing and examination by a dentist of the oral cavity. Various indicators have been applied as oral devices to detect local changes in acidity and oxidation potential in the oral cavity for diagnostic purposes. Such prior diagnostic tests have been used to indicate a present condition, and have not provided any long-term indication of oral disease, or to monitor suspected oral disease.